Rethug front-runner of the moment Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum set up a charity about 10 years ago, "Operation Good Neighbor." In the spirit of Brother Santorum's deeply held religious views, one should expect the charity did great things for the poor and downtrodden it was supposed to help. Huh? What?
"[H]omeless families and troubled children were not the biggest beneficiaries of Operation Good Neighbor. Instead, the foundation spent most of its money to run itself, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for fundraising, administration and office rental paid to Santorum’s political allies.
"The charity also had significant overlap with the senator’s campaigns and his work on Capitol Hill. Among the leading donors to the foundation were Pennsylvania development and finance firms that had donated to his election efforts and had interests that Santorum had supported in the Senate.
"Santorum, whose last-minute surge in the Iowa caucuses has brought new attention to his presidential bid, portrays himself as a common man concerned about the gap between the nation’s rich and poor. But in the case of his charity, his efforts ended up mostly helping his cadre of political friends. [emphasis added]
"Before it folded in 2007, the foundation raised $2.58 million, with 39 percent of that donated directly to groups helping the needy. By industry standards, such philanthropic groups should be donating nearly twice that, from 75 to 85 percent of their funds.
“'That’s exceptionally poor,' Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, a national organization that rates charitable groups, said of the Santorum group’s giving. 'We would tell donors to run with fear from this organization.'” [emphasis added]
I think Mr. Berger's advice would also apply for anyone thinking Santorum is an honest, salt-of-the-earth politician -- run with fear from this sanctimonious hypocrite.
(via today's Kaplan Daily - we don't need no stinkin' link)
(Photo: "(sniff) Daddy won't cut me in on the skim.")
